Today's Liberal News

Famous People, by Kaitlyn Tiffany and Lizzie Plaugic, a Newsletter Starring Nobody Famous, Comes to The Atlantic

The Atlantic is launching Famous People, a newsletter by staff writer Kaitlyn Tiffany and writer and creative strategist Lizzie Plaugic. Kaitlyn and Lizzie recap the small parties, dinners, and events they attend with each other and their friends––and nobody famous.Starting today, readers can sign up and read the first edition, where Kaitlyn follows Martha Stewart’s instructions to create a “Russian Buffet for Twenty-Four” from her 1982 book, Entertaining.

Martha Stewart Must Know Something We Don’t

Sign up for Kaitlyn and Lizzie’s newsletter here. Kaitlyn: A few months ago, my friend Stephanie found a copy of Martha Stewart’s 1982 book, Entertaining, on a stoop in Brooklyn and gave it to me at my birthday breakfast. This book is amazing.

Who Is Aafia Siddiqui? Synagogue Attack Renews Focus on Pakistani Neuroscientist Imprisoned in Texas

During Saturday’s synagogue attack in Colleyville, Texas, the gunman Malik Faisal Akram repeatedly called for the release of Pakistani neuroscientist Aafia Siddiqui, who is serving an 86-year sentence in a U.S. federal prison located just miles from the synagogue. Siddiqui was convicted in 2010 on charges that she intended to kill U.S. military officers while being detained in Afghanistan two years earlier. However, many questions remain unanswered about her time in U.S.

Texas Rabbi: Despite False Media Narratives, Synagogue Attack Brought Jewish & Muslim Communities Together

On Saturday, an armed British man named Malik Faisal Akram took a rabbi and three congregants hostage at a synagogue outside of Fort Worth, Texas, resulting in an 11-hour standoff that ended once the rabbi threw a chair at Akram, who was later shot dead by the police. The standoff — which left all four hostages unharmed — has been identified by President Biden and federal authorities as an antisemitic act of terror.

“There Must Be a Moral Shift”: Bishop Barber Calls on Democrats to Pass Voting Rights, Protect Poor

Senate Democratic leadership insists they will debate two critical voting rights bills even though Democratic Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema have publicly denounced their party’s plan to make changes to Senate filibuster rules that would give Democrats the votes needed to pass the landmark legislation. Meanwhile, thousands marched in support of the legislation and the necessary filibuster rule changes in Washington, D.C.

Does Being a Victim of Crime Shift a Politician’s Views?

A neoconservative, Irving Kristol famously joked, is a liberal mugged by reality. What, then, is a liberal who has been mugged by, well, muggers—or rather, carjackers?The question isn’t academic. Last month, in separate, unrelated events, two Democratic lawmakers were carjacked at gunpoint. On December 21, Illinois state Senate Majority Leader Kimberly Lightford had her car stolen in suburban Chicago. The next day, U.S.

“Who We Are”: New Film Chronicles History of Racism in America Amid Growing Attack on Voting Rights

As the United States heads into the Martin Luther King Day holiday weekend, attempts by Democrats to pass major new voting rights legislation appear to have stalled. We examine the new award-winning documentary “Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America,” which follows civil rights attorney Jeffery Robinson as he confronts the enduring legacy of anti-Black racism in the United States, weaving together examples from the U.S. Constitution, education system and policing.

John Nichols on How “Coronavirus Criminals & Pandemic Profiteers” Hurt World’s Response to COVID-19

We speak with The Nation’s national affairs correspondent John Nichols on the occasion of his new book, “Coronavirus Criminals and Pandemic Profiteers: Accountability for Those Who Caused the Crisis,” which takes aim at the CEOs and political figures who put profits over people during the coronavirus pandemic. The chapters cover notorious figures such as former President Trump, Mike Pompeo, Jared Kushner and Jeff Bezos.

Kevin McCarthy tweets recycled pro-police video just days after skipping Jan. 6 moment of silence

“RT to thank the men and women in blue on #LawEnforcementAppreciationDay,” Kevin McCarthy tweeted from his account earlier this month. The very produced one minute and nine second-long video featured the Republican House minority leader riding bikes with law enforcement and handling memorial wreaths. The tweet, dated Jan. 9, ends with the words “thank you to our police.”

But just three days before that tweet, on the anniversary of the Jan.

Did you read more books than the average American adult in 2021? Let’s find out

Unfortunately, here in the United States, we tend to be inundated with wellness advice that basically sums up to: Do more, try harder, and be better. There’s much to be said about how capitalism ingrains itself so deeply into our personal lives that we experience, say, a difficult period or traumatic event and turn to self-improvement (as opposed to widely accessible mental health care, for example).

The IRS is broken, just as Republicans intended. It’s what they want for the rest of government

Tax filers in 2022 will face the same frustrations and delays that have characterized tax season for years now, heightened by the pandemic. Treasury officials recently spoke to reporters in a conference to begin the process of lowering taxpayers’ expectations.

The IRS, they told reporters, is dealing with the pandemic and the fact that it has just 15,000 employees tasked with customer services, expected to handle more than 240 million calls.

Either John Cornyn is an idiot or he thinks you are

It doesn’t get any more dimwitted than this. Last week, Sen. John Cornyn of Texas claimed that Democrats’ focus on protecting the right to vote was in response to a “manufactured crisis.”

To support that claim, he pointed to a Pew Research Center poll conducted just after the November 2020 presidential election that found more than nine in 10 voters said it was easy to vote in the election.

Why volunteering for Obama in 2008 gives me hope that we can still save democracy

The first time I got involved in politics in a real way was the 2008 presidential election. A friend of mine convinced me to volunteer to make calls in support of this junior senator from Illinois named Barack Obama.

I must admit, as much as I loved the idea of playing a part in getting the first Black president elected, I thought there’s no way in hell this guy can win. I mean, his middle name is Hussein. No way white people will vote for this guy after 9/11.

A Synagogue Shouldn’t Be a Fortress

A few years ago, in response to the deadly 2018 attack on the Tree of Life congregation in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the synagogue where my children and husband are members asked me to advise its new security committee. Easy enough. It is what I do for companies, public entities, schools, and sports teams. My job is to assess risk and buttress defenses in response to those risks. That’s it. I do cold calculations, not emotion. On that occasion, however, dispassion was a liability.